Pleasure: A Natural Resource Vital to Our Wellbeing with Dr Jia Gottlieb

As a doctor, today's special guest Jia Gottlieb, MD witnessed a great deal of human suffering and learned that 80 percent of common diseases could be prevented by healthy lifestyle choices alone. A big part of why we don't make those choices is that we’re deeply confused about pleasure. Most people think pleasure and pain are opposites like the north and south poles of a compass, which is not true. Given such basic confusion, it’s no wonder so many of us in our pursuit of pleasure end up in pain and suffering.

In his groundbreaking book aah...The Pleasure Book, Dr. Gottlieb dispels two thousand years of shared shame, guilt, and ignorance to reclaim the wisdom of pleasure as the ultimate guide to a beautiful and fulfilling life. Drawing on penetrating insights from history, cutting-edge neuroscience, and spiritual wisdom, he provides the knowledge and tools to transform your life by working with your human nature rather than against it, to live from love rather than fear. 

The son of an Austrian father and a Chinese mother, Dr. Jia was born to write this book. While his father schooled him in the logic of chess, his mother imbued him with the intuitive ways of the East. After completing a BA in physics from the University of Colorado, an MD from Northwestern University, and a Family Medicine residency at the top-ranked Community Hospital of Sonoma County, he journeyed to Japan and China for intensive training in martial arts and acupuncture. Returning to Boulder, Colorado in1984, Dr. Jia established the Still Mountain Clinic, which he directed for over twenty-five years.He holds black belts in aikido and karate, plays the bamboo flute, is a lifelong student of yoga and Zen meditation, and is learning to tango. He is the proud father of three daughters.